law

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   An official rule that everyone in a country or community must obey.

   There is a law against importing wallabies.

2. 2
   noun

   The whole system of such rules in a society.

   A good society depends on respect for the law.

3. 3
   noun

   The profession or study of legal work.

   She studied law at Yale.

4. 4
   noun

   A scientific rule that describes how something always behaves in nature.

   Students learned the laws of thermodynamics in physics class.

5. 5
   noun

   The police (informal).

   He ran off before the law came looking for him.

Common collocations

• break the law Verb + noun
• strict law Adjective + noun
• enforce a law Verb + noun
• obey the law Verb + noun
• pass a law Verb + noun
• criminal law Adjective + noun
• international law Adjective + noun

From Middle English lawe, laȝe, from Old English lagu (“law”), borrowed from Old Norse lǫg (“law”, literally “things laid down or firmly established”), originally the plural of lag (“layer, stratum, a laying in order, measure, stroke”), from Proto-Germanic *lagą (“that which is laid down”), from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ- (“to lie”). Cognate with Scots law (“law”), Icelandic lög (“things laid down, law”), Faroese lóg (“law”), Norwegian lov (“law”), Swedish lag (“law”), Danish lov (“law”), Finnish laki (“law”). Compare typologically distant cognate Russian уложе́ние (uložénije). Displaced nativ…

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